


Maudlin and Tipsy

by HSavinien



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alcohol, Background Cremisius "Krem" Aclassi, F/M, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Mercenaries, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25082866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HSavinien/pseuds/HSavinien
Summary: Adaar can't have the one she wants, and Dorian is kind.
Relationships: Female Adaar & Dorian Pavus, Female Inquisitor & Dorian Pavus
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Maudlin and Tipsy

Dorian was a little startled by the knock on the door the first night back at Skyhold after the unpleasant, interminable trip through the Fallow Mire. Even with the Chargers, the Iron Bull, and Varric along, it had been difficult for anyone to keep their spirits up and he could only spend so many night watches sending dead things back to their rest and still be of any use to the Inquisitor the next day. Even Adaar had spent the trip subdued, and she was usually a boundless tower of energy. 

Frankly, the idea that anyone had the energy to come calling instead of collapse in a bath or bed was a little alarming. Dorian wrapped his favorite blue dressing gown around himself and answered the door to find Adaar herself, hangdog and carrying a bottle. 

"I see you've brought an offering," Dorian said. "What sort of favor do you intend it to bribe me into doing?"

Adaar looked even more dejected. "Keep me company while I'm drunk and maudlin?"

"Certainly. You've had the good grace to manage my emotional catastrophes often enough. I would not be such a cad as to deny you my ear during your own." Dorian swept out an arm in welcome, then hurried to rearrange the armchairs so that they faced each other across the table. "Shall I fetch glasses or are we indulging straight from the bottle?"

Adaar chuckled weakly. "Best get the glasses and pretend I'm not an uncivilized brute."

"Don't fret, I'd still respect you in the morning even if you drank it from a mug," he said, rummaging in the cupboard. "What are we drinking?"

Adaar checked the note pasted on the bottle. "Uh, apple...something smudged." She set it on the table with the care of someone already tipsy. 

Dorian picked out some very small glasses and sat. While it might be a light cider, something stronger seemed more likely. He poured and sipped, manfully repressing a shudder. Apples had certainly been involved in the creation of the beverage somewhere, but by the taste they had been overpowered by the presence of goat and bog. "Was it perhaps a gift from the Avvar?"

"Probably," Adaar agreed, peering at the label again. She tossed back her glass, then made a face as the taste hit. "Oh. Maybe I'd better save this for the diplomatic corps."

Dorian burst out laughing. "Sometimes you have as wicked a mind as Josephine," he said, tipping the rest of his glass carefully back into the bottle. It was so extremely alcoholic that there would be no harm done and he frankly couldn't even stomach the thought of disposing of it out the window to inflict on any poor soul unlucky enough to walk below. "Best keep the rest to inflict on someone who deserves poisoning but is still needed alive."

"Exactly." Adaar beamed for a second before recalling that she was unhappy. "But now I don't have anything to give you to drink."

"Never mind that," Dorian said, "Just explain what the trouble is, and I'll see if I can help."

She shifted in her chair, not meeting his eyes. "It's nothing important. I'm just sad. The person I fancy isn't someone I can have." She glanced up and saw his expression. "Not you! I know! You don't like women, just like Cassandra doesn't, I get that, mostly," she added dubiously. "Intellectually, at least. I mean, I'm a bit disappointed by it, as you're very pretty and she… uh. Sorry, that's probably rude."

Dorian put on one of his best noble patrician expressions. "Your disappointment is perfectly understandable, my dear friend. I am a glorious specimen of humanity."

Adaar grinned at his vanity, only a little wobbly.

"If not myself or the Seeker, foiling your interest by means of incompatible sexuality, who? I'm sure the Bull would enjoy giving you a roll in the sheets, Sera would attempt to climb you like a tree given any encouragement at all, and Josphine already likes your company and thinks you're sweet." Dorian ticked off her companions on his fingers. "Cullen, I fear, would blush extravagantly and demur on the basis of your size, shortsighted of him, but alas. You've never been close to Solas, Vivienne, or Blackwall. I'm afraid neither Varric nor Leliana seem to have much personal interest in those particular indulgences of the flesh. Cole is…"

"Something of a little brother to me," Adaar broke in, looking disturbed. 

"Quite. So, who does that leave to turn you down? Hawke seems to be attached to that pirate friend of hers, I suppose…"

Adaar hid her face in her hands. "Sometimes I still feel like a mercenary," she said. "Like there's all these important people who listen to me now, but I'm still a mercenary whose parents were refugees and the best thing I know is to keep my crew alive and send money home to give them a more comfortable life. And the part of me that still feels like that looks for familiar things and people and… You know, before all this, the Bull would have been too important for me to look to for more than an indulgent tumble at his convenience."

Dorian worked through that. "One of the Chargers," he said slowly.

She nodded miserably. "Lieutenant Aclassi. If we'd met three months earlier. If our companies had ever been hired together, I'd have been bringing him courting gifts and buying him drinks and sweet talking him every chance I got. But we didn't, and so he treats me like a noble even when he sees me covered in dirt and blood, and you don't fuck the person who hired you, just in case they decide that's part of what they're paying for and turn nasty about it."

"That sounds like the voice of experience," Dorian observed. 

"Not mine, not directly." Adaar shrugged. "And it's not something the Bull would ever worry about for himself, but there are plenty of mercs who know they should. People who sell their bodies are always in danger from the powerful."

"Surely nobody would be foolish enough to try to force a soldier," Dorian said, and knew it to be naive as he said it. 

Adaar just shrugged with a half smile. "You know they would. If the soldier is pretty, or a woman, or small, especially, but there's plenty of people who get off on asserting their power over someone bigger and stronger. I was in a good company, we didn't take jobs from people who'd try that, but all the women and elves at least knew it was always a possibility. Some of the human men did too, the brighter ones."

"And Cremisius would know it."

"Absolutely." Adaar laid her head down in her folded arms. "So I'm sad and it can't be helped."

Dorian hummed sympathetically, patting her scalp between her horns. "I understand that, at least a little. It's one of the problems with slavery that Tevinter needs to address. Protections against abuse exist, of course, but it is so very hard to testify against someone who controls the life of your family and friends."

"Nobility is stupid. Social class. All of it. Just scrap it all and start over," Adaar grumbled. 

Dorian chuckled. "A longterm goal, I suppose. After we defeat Corypheus, I'll go work on Tevinter and you can completely upend the fabric of society here in the barbaric south."

Adaar nodded. "Good plan."

"We'll work out the details later," Dorian said. "In the meantime, can I get you something slightly less toxic to help you through the evening?"

She waved a hand. "That would be nice. You're nice to me. I wish you liked girls."

"And I'd enjoy making your closer acquaintance if you were a man, but alas." Dorian gave her another pat and went to fetch some single malt. There were worse ways to spend the night than drinking with Adaar.


End file.
